Dáil debates

Thursday, 23 June 2022

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate

School Accommodation

4:25 pm

Photo of Malcolm NoonanMalcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Cathasaigh for raising this matter and giving me the opportunity to outline to the House the position on the accommodation in place for Tramore Educate Together National School.

Tramore Educate Together National School was established in 2014 under the patronage divesting process. The patronage divesting process arises from the recommendations of the 2012 report of the advisory group to the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector, following which the Department of Education undertook surveys of parental preferences in 43 areas of stable population in 2012 and 2013 to establish the level of parental demand for a wider choice in the patronage of primary schools within those areas. Analysis of the parental preferences expressed in each area surveyed indicated that there was sufficient parental demand to support changes in school patronage in 28 areas, including Tramore.

Under the patronage divesting process, a school can be opened where a school building became, or was due to become, available - for example, as a result of an amalgamation or closure of an existing school. In the case of Tramore Educate Together National School, the planned permanent accommodation is a school property formerly used by Glór na Mara primary school, as Deputy Ó Cathasaigh has outlined. That property is undergoing a building retrofit project. Financial provision has been made in the national development plan for funding support for the refurbishment of schools, including retrofit. To prepare the way for that large-scale retrofit work, a pathfinder partnership programme has been put in place, jointly arranged by the Department and the Sustainable Energy Authority Of Ireland, SEAI. The pathfinder partnership programme focuses on supporting energy efficiency retrofit in primary and post-primary schools. That includes retrofit improvements to buildings, test approaches, building of best practice and development of a scalable retrofit model which can be replicated across the public sector. Where improvements are made, the intent is to optimise improvements relating to fabric and ventilation; to improve efficiency of lighting and heating, ventilation and air conditioning, HVAC, systems; and to deliver space heating by means of renewable heat.

The Tramore school building is one of three schools selected to pilot a procurement approach whereby refurbishment work will be completed at the same time as the deep energy retrofit work. The refurbishment works are being funded 100% by the Department of Education, while the deep energy retrofit works are funded on an equal basis by the Department and SEAI. The project at the Glór na Mara building is progressing well on site and is expected to complete later this year. Having considered the long-term accommodation needs of the school, the Department of Education has acquired additional land beside the Glór na Mara property site to facilitate the provision of additional accommodation on that site. In this way the school will have sufficient accommodation between the retrofitted Glór na Mara building and the newly built accommodation on the site. This will secure the long-term needs of Tramore Educate Together National School.

Pending the completion of all required building works, for the first quarter of the upcoming school year Tramore Educate Together National School will remain in its current interim accommodation arrangements. The school is currently located, as Deputy Ó Cathasaigh said, on a split-site basis, comprising a premises formerly occupied by the HSE, namely the Tramore health centre, and on part of the former Stella Maris Secondary School property, which is now under private ownership. The lease of the former HSE building has been extended until the end of December 2022 to ensure accommodation is in place for the school while the retrofit project is ongoing. On completion of the retrofit project, the school will operate from the upgraded Glór na Mara building and the rented accommodation in the Stella Maris building until the extension project is delivered.

The Department of Education has approved funding for the reconfiguration of a second classroom for special education in the main Stella Maris building, along with a central activities space which will allow for a two-class special education base to function from that location in the medium term. Accommodation is also in place for the school's seventh developing mainstream post.

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